The Effects of Parental Emotion Regulation Ability on Parenting Self-Efficacy and Child Diet

Abstract

Child weight issues can be emotionally challenging for parents. The purpose of this study was to examine how parents’ ability to manage negative emotions may facilitate parenting self-efficacy and healthy parenting behaviors (e.g., providing healthy food for a child). In this study, parents ( N = 159) of a 6–12-year-old child completed a health-specific parenting self-efficacy questionnaire and retrospectively reported their child’s daily servings of fruits and vegetables and sweets and soda. They also completed a parental emotion regulation task where they viewed film clips of families struggling with child weight challenges. During this task, parents managed their emotions by either positively reframing the situation to feel less negative (down-regulate negative emotions) or negatively reframing the situation to feel more negative (up-regulate negative emotions). We tested a mediation model examining the relations among parent emotion regulation, parenting self-efficacy, and child dietary habits. Results revealed that parents’ ability to down-regulate negative emotions was associated with lower parenting self-efficacy, which in turn was associated with greater sweets and soda consumption among children. In contrast, parents’ ability to up-regulate negative emotions was directly associated with lower sweets and soda consumption, regardless of parenting self-efficacy. Our findings have implications for healthcare practice and child weight interventions as they underscore the importance of helping parents consider the consequences of childhood obesity to encourage healthy eating behavior in families.

The differential predictive utility of two caregiver-targeted self-efficacy measures to promote oral health of underserved children.

“…Greater context-specific oral health self-efficacy consistently predicted better diet scores (i.e., lower carcinogenicity scores) with little variation across the aging process. This aligns with the hypothesized association and previous work suggesting that caregivers who were better able to regulate their emotions (i.e., contextual control) had greater diet-specific self-efficacy and subsequent better child diet (Sagui-Henson et al, 2020). Behavior-specific oral health self-efficacy predicted healthier child diet but only at older ages (7.5–8.9 years).…”

Parent emotion regulation and parenting self-efficacy: The moderating role of coparenting

“…In a study of parents of school-aged children who underwent surgical procedures at a Hungarian hospital, Miklosi and colleagues (2013) found parents with higher PSE experienced less anxiety, and the use of maladaptive cognitive ER strategies (e.g., rumination, catastrophizing) weakened the association of PSE with parental anxiety. Sagui-Henson and colleagues (2020) found in U.S. families of school-aged children, parents’ ability to decrease negative emotions was associated with lower PSE related to child health issues, whereas parents’ ability to increase negative emotions was not associated with PSE related to child health issues. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Partington and colleagues (2022) found U.S. parents who reported greater use of cognitive reappraisal were more likely to be labeled as “Thriving”, a category characterized by greater PSE and lower child emotionality.…”

“…However, few studies have linked the specific ER strategies of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression to PSE for fathers or mothers during middle childhood. Related studies have been primarily conducted in specific contexts (e.g., in relation to child health issues; Miklosi et al, 2013; Sagui-Henson et al, 2020) with fathers underrepresented (comprising between 10% and 25% of samples of parents). In a study of parents of school-aged children who underwent surgical procedures at a Hungarian hospital, Miklosi and colleagues (2013) found parents with higher PSE experienced less anxiety, and the use of maladaptive cognitive ER strategies (e.g., rumination, catastrophizing) weakened the association of PSE with parental anxiety.…”

Hubungan Antara Regulasi Emosi Dengan Parental Self-Efficacy Pada Ibu Anak Prasekolah Kb-Tk ‘Aisyiyah Di Sidoarjo

“…Adapun penelitian yang telah dilakukan sebelumnya mengenai regulasi emosi orang tua dengan parental self-efficacy, yaitu penelitian dari Sagui-Henson et al, (2020) Regulasi emosi memungkinkan individu mengevaluasi ulang dan mengekspresikan emosi sesuai dengan situasi yang dihadapi, terutama untuk situasi yang tidak menyenangkan. Ketika mampu meregulasi emosi, orang tua akan lebih terampil dalam menyelesaikan persoalan dalam pengasuhan anak, termasuk dalam mengatur diet anak (Laura et al 2020).…”